Making meaning

"If you have taken this rubble for my past
raking through it for fragments you could sell
know that I long ago moved on 
deeper into the heart of the matter

If you think you can grasp me, think again;
my story flows in more than one direction 
a delta springing from the riverbed 
with its five fingers spread" 

~Delta, by Adrienne Rich 1989 

Rich uses the metaphor of a river Delta to give voice to the meanings of her life. Meaning and everyday occupation in our own lives are like the river delta in Rich's poem. What we do in our day to day lives and the meanings created from those doings are inextricably bound together in the flow of life. 

I imagine daily occupation as the essential current that propels each of us along on life's journey. Hasselkus (2011) describes "... the occupations of our lives and the meanings of these occupations are essential contributors to the pace and direction of the life flow" (p. 21). Occupation is such a powerful source of meaning in our lives; meaning arises from occupation and occupation arises from meaning. 

Cabtree (1998) stated that "it is the nature of humans to make meaning through occupation". Yet I see it that it is also possible to say that it is the nature of humans to create occupation from meanings. Either way, occupation and meaning are inextricably intertwined in our lives, each contributing to the other throughout our life spans. 

References: 

Cabtree, J. L. (1998). The end of occupational therapy. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 52, 205-214. 

 Hasselkus, B. (2011). Meaning: An Essential for Life. In The meaning of everyday occupation (Second ed.). NJ: SLACK Incorporated. 

Rich, Adrienne (2001). Adrienne Rich, ed. Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations. Why I Refused the National Medal for the Arts. pp. 95–105 New York: W.W. Norton & Company